NB of the Week

Family. Holidays. Blah blah. Onto my NB.
Kick-Ass 2 #6
Hit-Girl is fudging back! This book is majorly slow but it's just as cool and violent as the first series. After that one, Kit-Girl has given up the costume and Kick-Ass has joined a new team of vigilantes. Only so has the formerly called Red Mist (now called a bad name that rhymes with Hother Lucker) with a team of evil doers. Many people have died, including Dave's father and the battle has gotten very one-sided. As issue 5 ended, Dave has been taken by MF's baddies, only to have their van shot up and all of them killed by none other than Hit-Girl.
After getting Dave free, they pull up to the drop point to surprise everyone else with a lot of violence and a lot of payback, which takes up about the first half of the issue. Using her now cop father to set up defenses, HG and KA prepare for MF's climax of terror. And if he's gonna call out all his bad friends, they're gonna get all the good ones they can find. As MF and his crew start to rain down mayhem in Times Square, they are surprised to see only HG and KA standing in their way (after MF was able to dispatch the cops elsewhere). Or so they think. As the hoard of people behind them start to take of hoodies and place on masks, MF sees that they tables are now even. One more issue to go and it's good versus evil in what should be a very good, very bloody comic book.
Millar is awesome. It's that simple. Kick-Ass one was great and Kick-Ass two is making out to be just as ridiculous and just as awesome. More so, later this summer, Miller and Romita Jr are starting up the Hit-Girl ongoing. Count me in. It may be super late and all but it's worth the read. And who doesn't love little girls who curse and kill the bad guys? That's right. Nobody.

NB of the Week

Thanks to work and the holidays, my NB is a day late but it's still there all the same so I'll get to it.
Wonder Woman #4 - Blood
Having left Paradise Island after the revelation that she is the daughter of Zeus, Diana is moving herself into a "more normal" life. We see her in a bar/dance club along with Zola, Hermes and Strife and we find out that Diana has no room for Strife's games or her threats. After "attacking" Zola, Diana stabs a broken glass into Strife's hand, making it very clear who her family is and always will be. Strife slinks out in God-like fashion, vowing more problems to come.
Back at Paradise Island, Hippolyta knows she has caused great pain to Diana but her troubles have only begun for Hera has arrived. Hippolyta offers herself to her Goddess as retribution for having a child with Zeus, asking for forgiveness. As Hera claims she wishes she could, we cut back to Diana.
Having spoken further to Zola, Diana has come to regret her storming away from her mother. Any lie she was told had to be from a source of protection and her mother has always loved her. She races back to Paradise to make amends but is shocked when she find lone armory across the ground with snakes covering most everything else. She slowly wanders forward, talking aloud, asking for her own forgiveness. As the final page comes, we find her kneeling down, wrapping herself around Hippolyta, who is now nothing more than a stone pillar.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Azzarello gets Wonder Woman. Still the best book DC is doing now and still the one I look forward to the most each month. Plain and simple.

New The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

Have ya seen this one yet? This movie is gonna be amazing. And in all honesty, I'm mostly looking forward to Tom Hardy as Bane. I've seen amazing Batman. Now I want amazing Bane.

Brain Tunes

I heard a song on the radio the other day from a dude called Redlight King. The song was pretty decent and it got stuck in my head for a while so I checked out the cd. I was quite impressed. Most songs aren't as "hard" as the one I heard but it's a great cd. This song in particular is the one that sticks out for me the most. Ingrained into my cerebellum.

NB of the Week

Uncanny X-Force #18 - The Dark Angel Saga: Conclusion
THAR BE MAJOR SPOILS HENCE FORTH...
It should really come as no surprise that this was my pick for the week. It's been an amazing book from the very start and the Dark Angel Saga has put most every story out right now to shame.
It's everybody's last stand. Sunfire goes ape-shit on AoA Iceman, Deathlok is able to reason is mind out from War and chase off Dark Beast and the Horsemen, Wolverine and Iceman are completely out of commission and Psylock and Fantomex are all that can stop Archangel. After Deathlok clears his mind, the others take off, leaving Archangel behind, claiming it's his will for this to happen. We don't see them further but Dark Beast leaves us with the information that Pestilence is currently carrying the heir of Archangel.
Back as Psylock and Fantomex try to stop Warren from taking the world, we find out that he is not one to mess with as he promptly stabs Fantomex in the head. Don't worry, he has another brain which he uses to call over to The World and have Ultimaton "let him out". Turns out the child's body we saw in a stasis chamber a while back is the kid he "killed" at the very start (or a variation of it in some way). He's been trying to program him to be a force of good and he may be their only hope because Psylock couldn't "pull the trigger" on Warren when she had the chance. Young En Sabah Nur flies in, hoping to overpower Archangel but he is discarded like they rest, not ready for a fight of this magnitude. However, as Archangel stands over the child's smoking body, he turns in surprise as Psylock stabs the Life Seed into the middle of his torso. Light and pain fill his lungs and expel out his eyes, mouth and chest. Cleansing his mind of Apocalypse, Warren reemerges to meet Betsy one last time. As he lays dying, she is by his side and in his mind. With a change of art (to the great Esad Ribic), we see Betsy giving Warren the life and peace he has always wanted. They are happily married with two lovely daughters, everyone growing old with each other up to the point of his death. As an old Warren is in bad next to an old Betsy, he coughs out an apology for not making that life easy for her. As he fades away, she leaves him with the tearful solace that he always did enough and that he was always her hero. We cut back to the real world as Fantomex is trying to pull Psylock away from Warren's body as everything around them is crashing and burning, needing to make it to safety before they go down with it. As they grab the survivors from the AoA and meet back with Deathlok (who has both Wolverine and the many pieces of Deadpool in a sack), Betsy looks up in the snow storm to see a naked, blond, winded man walking towards them. As she runs at him, calling out "Warren!", she wraps her arms around him and kisses him. We're left with a final page of him pulling her off, asking "Who are you?".
Wow. This may be one of the single best issues I have read in a long time. Everything about this book is amazing. Everything about this story is amazing. And everyone who has not been reading this book is very stupid and probably smells funny. Force may just be the best comic that I'm reading and has single-handedly made me a believer in Rick Remender's writing. At this point, I am more than willing to try whatever book he puts his hand on.

Hidden Gems - Sweet Tooth

I started reading a "new" comic the other called Sweet Tooth (it started in 2009 so it's not that new). It's writer and artist is Jeff Lemire hasn't really had a major hit yet but I just noticed him as he is the writer of Animal Man for DC's New 52 and that book has been pretty great so far.
Tooth is the story of Gus, a little hybrid boy who is part human, part deer. After a plague hit the world, wiping out a lot of it's population, all children have started being born as these hybrids. But Gus is special. He claims to be one year older then when the plague first hit. Finding him, betraying him and (probably) saving him is Jepperd. An old, grizzled man who lost his wife and hates the world. And he's also one BAMF of a dude.
I started reading this book last night, I've read the first year's worth of story and I can't wait to have more time to finish. It's only at issue 28 and each issue has gotten better than the last. Once 100 Bullets finished, I was worried that Vertigo wouldn't be able to catch my attention this way again and I'm thankful that Lemire and Sweet Tooth have proven me wrong. I'm not sure where the story or characters are going quite yet but I'm certain I'm excited to find out. Definitely check out this book before you get left behind. Worth every penny.

Nerdgasm

Anybody see the new Dark Knight Rises poster? I was showed it today and I have not been the same since. Love it and I'm super excited for Hardy as Bane.

For Adam

I saw this video today and thought of you, kind sir. Hope it gives you hope for the future.

NB of the Week

Stormwatch #4 - The Dark Side: Part 4
This is a bitter sweet NB, as I will explain later on but for now, the sweet.
Paul Cornell has made Stormwatch one of the top books in the "New 52", in my opinion. It started a bit slow but has picked up and gotten better every issue, with this one being the best of the lot. The team is back to being dark and gritty and somehow real even with everything happening.
The moon came alive. A creature/monster has "eaten" the team, leaving only Apollo and Midnighter. A lost city called Alba Umbra won't help because it's been lost for so long that it thinks everyone/thing is a dream. Midnighter being the savior and figuring out how to power Apollo back up so that he can go ape-shit on the bad guy. Swords and sorcery and super-powers and everything that should be in a Stormwatch book. This is easily the best incarnation of the title since the Ellis/Millar days.
And now the bitter.
Paul Cornell has announced that issue six will be his last issue. Paul Jenkins is set for a two-part story after that but no full writer has been named yet. Which is shit. DC has been switching out writers left and right with books that one would guess aren't the biggest sellers which leads me to believe that this was not a decision that Cornell made personally. Considering how in advance these things try to be, they maybe got sales figures from three issues before pulling his plug (assuming that is what happened) which isn't long enough. This book deserves to be out there over many others. Men of War, All-Star Western, Mr. Terrific, Batgirl, 1 of the Legion books (one getting a writing change), Blackhawks, Blue Beetle, Deathstroke, Grifter, Hawk & Dove, Justice League International, OMAC. All shit still going.
Superman, Static Shock, Firestorm, Legion, Voodoo, Green Arrow. All books that have had sudden changes in the writer. DC is mucking themselves over already. I understand the need to cut losses and most of these new books probably need it but only giving an issue or two doesn't give enough feedback time. Look at books like Uncanny X-Force, Walking Dead, Invincible, Powers or Chew. Amazing books that were not bought at their beginning. All big names and sellers now. DC needs to pull their heads outta their asses and learn how to sell books.
Or at least give me back Cornell for Stormwatch.

Boobs of the Day

Jennifer Blood
Garth Ennis is the brilliantly violent writer of the amazing comic Preacher and Punisher (one of the older runs, not the current one). He is currently over at Dynamite writing a book called Jennifer Blood about an assassin who is also a plain jane housemother. While I have been less than impressed with the first six issues, I was struck by the beach balls on the cover to seven, which hits the shelves tomorrow. Apparently big apples such as these are what helps sell Ennis books now-a-days. I kinda miss Irish vampires...
Anyhow, Boobs of the day. Jennifer Blood. Read Preacher.

Clif-Notes: The Muppets

Everybody her remember the original Muppet Movie? How about the the original Muppet Show? If you do and you are a fan of either, you should love this new venture into master puppetry.
Gary and Mary (Jason Segel and Amy Adams) are heading to LA for their tenth anniversary. Along with Gary's Muppet brother Walter. As Mary gets a bit left out, the three of them must help Kermit the Frog bring back the old gang one more time to try and save the Muppet Theatre from an oil tycoon trying to tear it down.
Ya know, there really isn't much I can about this movie other than I loved it. Not the best movie of the year and not without it's flaws, the Muppets finally get back to their roots and make a movie that is pure Muppet and not just Disney product. It has most everything that made the original Muppets' stuff amazing. Corny humor that has a bit too much adult teases to be just for children, guest stars coming out the black hole (much as I don't like her, I liked that Selena Gomez didn't know who anybody was) and, of course, Muppets running everywhere. As I said, if you enjoy the Muppets at all, especially if you enjoy the early stuff, go see this movie. You will be very happy with it.